If the inlett is accurate you can bed one their finished stocks by roughing up the interior and bedding with your favorite bedding compound. I have done about a dozen of the boyds and had to send one back when the screw holes were off enough they could not be corrected without a bunch of work. The actual finish is very nice and I would gladly pay $100 extra to avoid all of the sanding and finish work.

On the other hand I find a bunch of the boyd stocks to be kind of "clubby", particularly the JRS. For my stocks I put them on a diet with a rasp and slim out the forend, wrist and buttstock quite a bit, this will cut the weight by about 6-8oz and might fit someone with smaller hands much better.

Believe me from many past experiences with several companies going back to the old Herter's company, after you are into this you will wonder how they can finish it for $100.00. It's a bargin if they don't screw it up. Thanks...Bill.

_________________________
NRA Benefactor Member.

He is one of the Legion Lost;He was never meant to win;He's a rolling stone, and it's bred in the bone;He's a man who won't fit in.

I bought a Richardson Microfit laminate stock for my CZ. It about $120. I had my gunsmith do the woodwork/finish up etc, that was an additional $500. Could have gotta a McMillan stock and bedded it for that price. Don't get me wrong, it was a nice laminate stock, but unless you can do the woodwork yourself I feel that its not worht it.

I would strongly suggest spending the extra $100 for the finished stock, unless you already have the tools and some skill at woodworking. I would also strongly suggest that you avoid Richards Microfit unless you have all of the tools, some skill at woodworking, and lots of spare time that has no value.

I recently finished a Boyds unfinished laminate stock for a Mauser. Inletting was not at all difficult. It did not take a workbench full of tools. It took a few chisels and scrapers, some inletting black, and about 2 hours time. That is the good news. The bad news is that there were gaps that had to be filled with Acraglas gel. They don't look at all bad now that the stock is bedded and finished, but the inletting in the "VIP" stock is generous.

The problem with using a Boyd's finished stock, and I am fitting one to a customer's gun today, is that the finished stock is somewhat clunky in some dimensions -- particularly in the forend shape and around that oversized pistol grip. I would rather have the unfinished stock so that I can reshape it to tailor it to my liking.

The Boyd's unfinished stock is quite well sanded, requiring only some finish sanding and resanding where extensive wood removal is done in the reshaping phase. It is easy to finish -- I used Minwax Wiping Poly on the last one.

Bottom line: If the stock fits your dimensions and you are not opposed to putting some bedding compound in the worst of the gaps, it makes up into a very usable hunting stock. I use them, and I will use more.

Here is the finished rifle:

And here is the area where I probably did the most shaping. I actually cut the grip down to install a steel (Fisher) grip cap:

Not sure of boyds pricing but typical labor for machining a pattern is 85-125.00, add wood to that.An excellent pattern machined by a person who knows their machine is light years different than what I've seen. A real good semi-inlet should only take less than an hour to drop the metal in. Typically, the bottom metal requires the least amount of work.If the pattern was glass or bondo bedded, trigger guards almost drop in.I've seen some that you could not tell what action was supposed to fit in- way too much work.Large companies can certainly sell them cheaper than a single man in some shop, but the quality is better- usually!